It is a common misconception held by many people that billboards are an “outdated” and “old school” form of advertisement. Oftentimes television ads, websites, or even social media platforms are pushed as the most current and relevant forms of advertising. Despite this, billboards have not gone away and have not become any less useful for spreading a message. Instead, the medium of physical billboards has advanced from new technology becoming available. We’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of billboard technology examples which show some of the options which are possible and how they can be used effectively.

Digital Screens And The Power Of Movement

Screen technology has changed the world. From televisions, to phones, to computers- screens are everywhere. High quality digital screens allow for moving, non-static video to be displayed virtually anywhere, and billboards are no exception.

The ability to have a short video play on a billboard gives advertisers so much more power when it comes to both grabbing an audience’s attention and sending a message.

Video billboards effectively manage to combine all of the strengths of a television ad with the benefits of physical billboards.

Static vs Dynamic Content

What’s more is that digital billboards also make it easy to display and change content. Instead of having to worry about the costs associated with the manual labor of actually putting up a billboard, the content can instead be sent directly to the billboard. Digital billboards are also capable of changing between multiple messages, allowing advertisers to alternate between different ads. This has allowed for digital billboards to completely change their pricing format given that such billboards can now host many more advertisement slots at once.

Individual ads are also able to display content which may be time sensitive or reliant upon outside data. While in a traditional billboard the message must be static and hold true at any time during all conditions, the message on a digital billboard can change depending on the time of day, weather conditions, or some other factor.

When messages are able to be tailored around certain fluctuating factors, many opportunities for very convincing marketing strategies open up.

People Looking At Billboards, Billboards Looking At People

While billboards are things to be looked at, what if a billboard were to do some looking of its own? Technology these days does not stop when it comes to displaying dynamic information, as digital cameras and pattern recognition make it possible for billboards to identify trends within a crowd and change their information accordingly.

While this type of functionality might sound far fetched, one such example of it includes the Picadilly Lights display in London. On top of having a huge display space, with the ad’s 4K LED screen being the size of two professional basketball courts, the ad is able to detect ages, emotions, and vehicles in order to adjust the content it shows.

As digital ads online have taught us, the best advertisements are targeted. Being able to leverage ad targeting with billboard technology continues to escalate the strength of billboards as an advertising medium.

Big Screens For Big Events

The huge size and quality of new digital screens allow them to be incredibly versatile and multi-purposed. In addition to displaying ads with dynamic content on them, it is also possible to leverage the space in order to display important or popular events, such as a baseball game or concert. Those wanting to draw people to a public space with their event will find their efforts greatly enhanced by making use of such digital billboard technology.